RD: Ouroboros
Overview Lister unravels the mystery of his parents. Kochanski also joins the crew from a different universe where Lister dies and is a hologram. Summary A patron of the Aigburth Arms is amazed to find a baby under the pool table, inside a box with "Ouroboros" written on it. The barmaid wonders what will become of him... That boy grows up to be Dave Lister. Aboard Starbug, The Cat detects an anomaly that creates a dimensional bridge in their cargo bay. When the Dwarfers walk down the tunnel, they encounter their counterparts from a parallel universe. In that reality, Lister is a hard-light hologram because it was Kochanski who was caught with a hidden cat. Lister is astonished to see Kochanski alive and tries to impress her (difficult, because he is wearing a frilly dressing gown, fluffy slippers and has a box of dental floss glued to his face). When a GELF cruiser penetrates non-space and fires at the tunnel, Kochanski falls into non-space, but Lister manages to haul her back up using the dental floss hanging from his teeth and the Dwarfers take her back to their own Starbug. When Kochanski wakes, she is annoyed at being on a ship filled with crude and uncultured versions of her own crew and determines to re-establish the dimensional linkway. Kryten begins to get jealous of the effect that she has on Lister, while both Lister and The Cat do all they can to impress her. Eventually, Kochanski repairs the linkway and heads back to her own dimension. Lister gives her a sperm sample so that she can have a child, but when he sees the word "Ouroboros" on a box of everlasting batteries, he realises that the embryo in the in-vitro tube is himself. He rushes down the linkway to stop Kochanski, but the GELFs return and sever the tunnel. Kochanski decides to jump the gap between dimensions, but misses her target and falls into non-space. Lister manages to fire a crossbow bolt with a line attached down to her, unfortunately skewering her leg in the process. After subjecting Lister to a variety of obscene language, she reluctantly joins their crew. Months later, Lister uses the time drive to place his infant self underneath the pool table, explaining that with himself going round and round in time, the Human species can never become extinct. Notes The "Aigbuth Arms" is a pub in Liverpool that the writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor used to frequent. It is now called "The Victoria". Noteworthy Dialogue Interesting, funny or relevant dialogue in the episode. Background Information * This episode is a sequel to "Emohawk: Polymorph II", and the first ever episode of Red Dwarf not to feature Arnold Rimmer. * Baby Lister is played by Danny John-Jules's nephew. According to DVD commentary, John-Jules volunteered his nephew when he discovered the baby originally recruited to play young Lister was too dark-skinned to be convincing as a younger Craig Charles. * The episode ran long and as a result was the first of two consecutive episodes to air without opening credits. When an extended version was created for later DVD release, the credits were put back on, however the "filmizing" process applied to the episode was not applied to the credits, providing a brief glimpse of how Series VII looked in its original shot-on-video form. Guest Stars *Gary Beasdale as Frank *Alexander John-Jules as baby Dave Lister References *The second episode of Series X, "Fathers and Suns", heavily references the events of this episode and serves as a sequel of sorts. Category:Episodes Category:Series VII Episodes Category:Episodes